Staff from several departments in the city of Toledo are being trained to use software that will provide detailed information on any parcel in the city.
Chad Johnson, the geographic information systems manager in the city’s IT department, said the new data software tool will make staff more efficient.
“We have a new tool we rolled out internally starting with two departments — code enforcement and urban beautification,” Mr. Johnson said at a Housing and Community Development committee meeting recently.
A sample of some of the data that is available in the software system includes information on buildings, calls for service from Engage Toledo, fire and police incidents, GIS spatial data, work orders for code enforcement, city council districts, and ZIP codes, he said.
“This tool is basically a property owner information portal. The goal of this software is to organize and provide access to a range of data. We implement a lot of software in the city. We didn’t want this to end up as another tool that got rolled out and it sat on a shelf,” he said of the software, Tolemi.
“There’s data coming from different departments, outside agencies, spreadsheets. We really tried to work with all these different divisions,” he said.
Each person who uses the software has an idea of how they are supposed to be using it for their particular job, Mr. Johnson said.
The software allows the departments using it to look at complaints, violations, outstanding fees, crime incidents, and more at the property or owner level.
“These are just data we’ve identified from code enforcement and urban beautification. As additional departments and users come online, the process is similar. We will work with them to identify any custom data sources they have that they would like to bring into the system, so they not only can take advantage of the data that is already in the system, but leverage their data against the data in the system. They can do a deeper dive on the data,” he said.
Code enforcement data is basically centered around property lookups, he said.
“For example, if someone is not paying their property taxes, most likely they have not paid the fines. We set up an alert that says ‘Show me any property in my area that has been sold recently with a violation.’ The idea is if someone new has bought the property, there is a higher likelihood they will pay the fines, and we will go after the code enforcement violations. It’s a way to give staff more power to go after dollars that are more realistic to come back in rather than chasing bad money,” he said.
Urban beautification focuses on on which parcels have long grass, blight, and overgrowth of weeds, he said.
“Code enforcement and urban beautification are up and running. We basically meet weekly to add new data sources, resolve issues, and answer questions,” he said.
His team is preparing to train the mayor’s office and the economic development department in the software, he said.
“Then we’re moving to housing and community development next. They will obviously have a big need for this. There’s a lot of data they would be interested in,” he said.
Some councilmen who are on the committee said they supported the software.
“This is wonderful,” said Councilman Brittany Jones. “I am very excited we are able to drill down with the data.”
“It seems like a very powerful tool,” Councilman Mac Driscoll said. “I’m interested mostly in its application on code compliance and code enforcement. Getting to know who the repeat offenders are on the tall grass or structure concerns allows us to make some decisions from a planning perspective on how to remediate these things, getting people into compliance — not with a heavy hand, but with a deft touch. We can work with homeowners who might be struggling with mowing their grass.”
It is also important to go after landlords who choose not to invest in their properties, he added.
“We need to make sure they are brought up to standard, which is a high standard. We want safe and attractive neighborhoods,” Mr. Driscoll said.
Mr. Johnson said he is working on similar software that could be accessed by the public in the future.
Mr. Driscoll raised concerns that public access could create tensions between neighbors.
Mr. Johnson said a public version would be a “lightweight” version, with available data that has already been approved by city officials.
“City council is an oversight body,” Mr. Driscoll said. “I think it would be a good thing to have another council hearing before we roll that out. I’d hate for this to make neighbor-to-neighbor relationships worse. It can be quite worrisome.”
Ms. Jones said she understood limiting some information, but she is in favor of providing enough data to the public that might spur remediation of some properties quickly.
“I would definitely want to share the information,” she said. “I don’t agree with just concealing whole information because this is supposed to empower people to better their communities.”
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